2022 Professional Bull Riding (PBR) world champion Daylon Swearingen chatted about the upcoming Professional Bull Riding event at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
While celebrating their 30th anniversary, the annual event will be making its 16th appearance at MSG, so clearly there is an appetite for bull riding in NYC. The high energy event will take place from Friday, January 6 to Sunday, January, 8.
“It’s an event like none other,” he said. “That arena has so much history already. Then you bring bull riding in there, man vs. beast, and a sport where nothing stops by a whistle, it plays out how it’s supposed to. There will be some wrecks, and some great bull rides and a lot of good times.”
On his daily motivations as a professional bull rider, he said, “I just want to be better than I was yesterday. Just keep working to be the best version of me.”
The digital age
He opened up about being a bull rider in the digital age, now with streaming, technology and social media being so prevalent. “It’s a little bit different. I think back to the guys back in the day, when not every bull had a video. Now we can look up every bull and know what that bull has done the last five times he’s been out. That’s good sometimes, and bad sometimes, you’ve just got to find your happy mental spot to go to and go to it,” he explained.
For young and aspiring bull riders, he said, “It doesn’t matter where you come from, or what your background is. If you want something bad enough, to be a bull rider or whatever it may be, you can get anything you want if you put your mind to it and don’t quit until you get there.”
Regarding his proudest professional moments, Swearingen shared, “Winning the World Championship and the PBR World Finals is up there in the top. Riding I’m Legit Too and then Cochise at my first 15/15 were cool moments for me.”
“Coming back from injuries and coming back stronger than when I left,” he said was a career-defining moment for him. “Also, winning the PBR World Finals in 2022, that was a really big event for me,” he added.
On his definition of the word success, he said, “The word success to me means you put as much as you can, you do your very best and however that outcome comes out, you did your best. Giving your best every time and doing that over and over again.”
For bull riding fans and supporters, he concluded, “It’s the best show on dirt. It’s the 30th anniversary of PBR and there’s no place to be other than Madison Square Garden this January.”
To learn more about Daylon Swearingen, follow him on Instagram.
